Detroit man gets 6 months in jail for dumping more than 70,000 tires

Sep. 6, 2013

Written by

Detroit Free Press staff writer

A Detroit man who collected more than 70,000 scrap tires and then left them dumped in the city was sentenced to 6 months in jail, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality announced today.

Henry Ross, CEO of Beal’s Rubber Recycling, was convicted late last month after earlier pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to register a tire recycling collection site, failing to provide bonding, and not complying with tire pile size and spacing restrictions.

Ross allegedly charged scrap tire haulers 80 cents per tire, not enough money to make it profitable to then shred them for recycling. The tires were illegally disposed of on a 2-acre site in northwest Detroit, DEQ officials said.

Ross also received two years’ probation and was ordered to pay $89,000 in restitution to dispose of the tires, along with $3,000 in fines and additional court costs.

The DEQ will work with the city’s department of public works to remove and properly dispose of the scrap tires, which can pose a fire hazard, officials said.